1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods for tuning programming content. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods for tuning one or more channels included in the programming content received from programming providers.
2. The Prior State of the Art
Currently, people are able to receive programming content from a wide variety of sources including local television stations, satellite systems, cable systems, and the Internet. While programming content from providers such as local television stations is usually freely available to most people, people are often required to pay a fee to the provider of the programming content from other sources. Further, the programming content that is freely available from local television stations is usually in an analog form, while the programming content received through cable systems, satellite systems, and the Internet is often digital in nature.
While digital programming content is desirable for both the provider and the recipient of the programming content, there are problems associated with digital programming content that are not typically present or associated with analog programming content. Digital programming content, for example, is typically transmitted by dividing the programming into separate identifiable packets which are multiplexed with other packets in the digital transmission that correspond to other programming. All of the packets, which include video and audio packets, are sent in the transmission and when the packets arrive at an intended recipient, they have to be demultiplexed and processed.
Another aspect of digital programming content is that the number of channels that are included in the programming content is often dependent on the digital quality of those channels. Thus, if a digital transmission contains high quality video and audio packets, there is an associated bandwidth cost that must be paid in order to transmit those packets. In other words, high quality digital content translates to fewer channels being transmitted in the programming content.
Because digital programming content is packetized and multiplexed, a set top box that receives the programming content from the provider needs significant memory and processing power to properly process and display the digital programming content. For example, when digital programming content is received from a provider, the programming content is tuned and demodulated in order to select a particular channel included in the programming content. After the channel has been tuned and demodulated, the relevant video and audio packets are separated and processed by the set top box. The separated video and audio packets are decoded and, if necessary, decrypted such that the set top box produces video and audio signals that may be interpreted by a user device such as a television.
Producing video and audio outputs from digital programming content can therefore require significant system resources and time. As a result, a user is often required to wait from a fraction of a second to several seconds before a particular channel may be properly tuned and displayed by the set top box. This time delay is especially evident when a user is channel surfing, or rapidly cycling through the channels included in the programming content. In this instance, a user is prevented from quickly changing channels because each channel selected by the user must first be tuned and processed before each channel is displayed to the user. The user is therefore unable to quickly scan through the channels included in the digital programming content.
The time required to properly tune digital programming content can therefore have a negative impact on the user experience. Systems and methods that can reduce or eliminate the wait experience by a user as well as enhance the user experience would be an advance in the art and are desired.
The present invention relates to systems and methods for tuning one or more channels included in digital programming content. One aspect of the present invention is to provide a second digital tuner in a set top box that enables an additional channel included in the programming content to be simultaneously tuned and processed with another channel included in the programming content.
When a user decides to change channels, the user must often wait until the channel is tuned before it is displayed to the user. One feature provided by an additional tuner is the ability to tune a channel that the user is not currently viewing. If the channel tuned by the additional tuner is selected by the user when the user changes channels, then the wait the user would otherwise experience while waiting for the selected channel to tune is reduced or eliminated. Thus, the present invention enhances the user experience by predicting which channel the user will select in the future and; by tuning that channel before it is selected by the user.
This is particularly useful when a user is sequentially cycling through the channels included in the programming content in either an incremental or decremental fashion. As a user sequentially cycles through the available channels, the tuners are used in an alternating fashion such that the user may rapidly cycle through the channels without having to wait for each channel to be tuned. More specifically, while one tuner is occupied with a channel being viewed by the user, the other tuner is used to tune the next sequential channel before that channel is selected by the user. Thus, when the next channel is selected, the user does not have to wait for that channel to tune because it has already been tuned by the extra tuner. In addition, the set top box may be configured to cause the tuners to skip channels such as pay-per-view channels or scrambled channels that cannot be tuned. As a result, a user who is sequentially cycling through the available channels is presented with only those channels that can be tuned and displayed.
Another feature provided by the present invention is the ability to cache channels or maintain a snapshot of recently viewed channels. By keeping track of specified channels or of channels that have been recently viewed by the user, a preview or snapshot of those channels can be continually updated by one of the tuners while another channel tuned by the other tuner is being viewed or recorded by the user. When the user views the recent channels or the channel cache, the user is able to quickly review the current content of several different channels simultaneously without having to select and tune each of those channels individually.
Another advantage of the present invention is the ability to view one program while recording another program. While one tuner is tuning the channel that is being viewed, the other tuner is tuning the channel that is being recorded. Alternatively, the additional tuner allows more than one channel to be recorded simultaneously while still permitting a user to view a pre-recorded channel.
Another feature of the additional tuner is the ability to update data that is associated with a particular channel. For example, some programs or channels display information that is retrieved from a separate source such as the Internet. In accordance with the present invention, the second tuner may be used to retrieve the updateable data from the Internet or from the programming content provider in the background while a user views the channel associated with the updateable data.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by the practice of the invention. The features and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. These and other features of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims, or may be learned by the practice of the invention as set forth hereinafter.